Rob 97 993c2

jpl - is summit worthwhile? doesnt seem that much further than watkins glen. what tracks have you been to? can you do the large summit and also do the skidpad? also, who services your car in nyc?
thx

Mark in Baltimore

I really enjoyed Watkins Glen the one time I was there (first club race), but Summit is definitely worth it. It's fast and very challenging (the chute and Turn 9 and Turn 10 being real gut checkers, at least for me) and still has some room for error, unlike Watkins Glen.

porschedriver

A typical beginner mistake that causes a spin is to go to fast into the turn. Specially true on our rear engined loved ones.

If you start to spin beacouse you are going to fast into the turn you are probably way over what you can handle from the start, and there is no way you can catch such a slide easily. The trick to fast and good driving (and how to learn it) is:

1) Always drive the right race-line. Its better to drive slow but to hold the race-line rather than to try driving fast and miss the race-line(you learn more and its probably faster even if it doesnt feel like that)

2) Fast in = slow out. Start trying to go more slowly into the turns and keep the race-line. Apply more gas and control the drift until you hit "track out" while drifting.

3) Going "sideways" under the throttle is way easier than going sideways while scrubbing of speed (i.e. going to fast) Try to learn how your car behaves under throttle. I.E. get the feel of overster-understeer by forcing the car into understeer with the steering wheel and into oversteer with the gas while ACCELERATING. Best is to start this excercise on an empty parkinglot.
Remeber that the car behaves different under acceleration and when it goes into a turn coasting, but to start getting a feel this is a good excercise which can be done moderately safetly even on the track.

JPL 993-C4S

Summit Point is worthwhile. I like the Summit Raceway better than the neighboring Shenandoah. Jefferson Circuit is a very short track, not a full-on "race track", they use it mostly for training VIP drivers and police, but I had a lot of fun on Jefferson.

I have been to Shenandoah, Jefferson, Summit Point, Barber (in Birmingham AL), and Pocono North Course. Haven't been to Limerock or Watkins Glen, as they have never quite fit my schedule, but those are the top 2 on my list for this summer.

I did a 3-day event there... first two days we did Jefferson and the skidpad... 3rd day was the big Summit Point track. So you can squeeze the skidpad and big Summit track into one event, but not in the same day...... reason is that to get your vehicles to the skidpad, they need to momentarily shut down Jefferson, as driving on Jefferson is the only paved way to get to the skidpad.

I use Chris Manfredi at Lynmor in LI. Knowledgeable and responsive (though he sometimes gets frustrated if you ask too many questions). There is a LIRR station near his shop.

I haven't been to Cheech at Rennwerke, tried to get him to quote me some PSS9s and he didn't return my messages for weeks... others have said their phone messages were similarly blown off... he's rumored to do good work but I don't need to be blown off.

Have heard that Dan Jacobs in CT is very good, but too far away, so I haven't tried him either.

Ray Calvo

Forget about the race tracks and try autocrossing.

JPL 993-C4S

There are winter autocrosses in the NYC area... I am just guessing, but it would seem that running your car for short aggressive bursts when very cold would cause excessive wear, no? Or do people idle their car to keep it warm between runs?

Rezal

The day I decided that I was to get a 911 was when a friend of mine let me drive his 911 (a car specced out close to a '74 2.8 RSR spec) at an autox. I could literally make the car dance with the tail-out without losing it.

My point is:
a. An auto-x is a great place to practice
b. It's a good place to learn what it feels like BEFORE your car loses it, which is way better than actually having to counter steer it AFTER the fact

I used to do DE's with the Alfa club of Southern CA. They would run at the Streets of Willow and skid pad control was part of the curriculum (2 days, 2 sessions a day, 3hrs each, 1st hr classroom, 2nd hr skidpad, 3rd hr track). Check and see if other clubs might offer skidpad control as part of the DE (PCA DEs are mostly 100% track).